Libyans: NATO Bombing Raids Also Killed Civilians

On an Aug. 10 tour organized by Moammar Gadhafi's governement, an unidentified man lies in a hospital bed in Tripoli. He was allegedly injured during NATO airstrikes a day earlier.

Dario Lopez-Mills
/ AP

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Originally published on October 26, 2011 8:18 pm

NATO's role in Libya was crucial to the rebellion that toppled Moammar Gadhafi, but that assistance came at a cost, according to some Libyans.

Mohammed Abueishi lives in the Souq al-Juma neighborhood of Tripoli, near an apartment building on a quiet residential street that was hit by a NATO airstrike a little after 1 a.m. on June 19.

"I was sleeping and suddenly there was an enormous blast and all the doors and the windows burst open. There was a huge amount of dust in the house," he said. "I stumbled out to find my uncle's house destroyed."

Another relative, Abdul Rahman al-Gharari, said five of his relatives were killed, including two children — one 9 months old, the other 2 years old.

NATO's mission in Libya was to protect civilian lives. But now that Gadhafi is gone, evidence is emerging that some bombing raids killed civilians as well as Gadhafi's fighters.

Residents in the Souq al-Juma neighborhood supported the Libyan revolution and say they have no reason to lie about what happened here.

Souq al-Juma was well known for its opposition to Gadhafi. It was one of the first Tripoli neighborhoods to rise up against him, and the people say they consider the people who died in this NATO strike as martyrs, not victims.

It has been four months since the apartment building was hit by a bomb, and it is still a pile of twisted metal and rubble. The residents say they want an investigation into what happened.

Abueishi says there should be compensation and NATO should take responsibility for the deaths.

NATO Acknowledges Strike

Unlike with other targets, NATO has admitted that it mistakenly hit this house.

But it says it has not been given any proof that civilians died in this NATO strike — or in any other — and it says it will not send investigators.

"We don't have any confirmation of any civilian casualties as a result of our operations," said Col. Roland Lavoie, the NATO spokesman for the Libya mission. "So, I could not give you a number because that number is essentially zero in terms of confirmed casualties resulting from our strikes."

He says the Gadhafi regime often lied about civilian casualties in its propaganda war.

"What was unfortunate in the situation in Libya is that the Gadhafi regime constantly made claims that were totally unsubstantiated and made no sense," he said. "So basically we could not give much value to the information that was given by the regime."

Residents in Souq al-Juma offered insight into how Gadhafi's government would try to stage-manage events.

Almost immediately after the strike on June 19, members of the international press corps, escorted by their minders, were brought to the scene.

Neighbors tried to move the bodies from the site but they were told to leave them for maximum dramatic effect. And Gadhafi supporters who had no knowledge of the strike were bused in to give testimony to the foreign reporters. Though only five people are known to have died, the Gadhafi government at the time put the death toll at nine.

Gharari says he is grateful to NATO for all it has done for Libya.

Calls For An Investigation

But now that the Gadhafi regime is gone, people want the coalition to look into what happened in Souq al-Juma.

The Libya transitional government, though, is unlikely to push the issue. It has asked NATO to extend its mission and may not want to put its allies in an uncomfortable position.

Kristele Younes, who works with the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, says it is absurd for NATO to maintain that no one was harmed by its bombs.

"There hasn't been any conflict in history where civilians have not been harmed," she said. "We need to have NATO investigators looking into some of those allegations. Some of them may be false, but I am convinced some of them are true."

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MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.

MICHELE NORRIS, HOST:

And I'm Michele Norris. NATO will decide this week whether to end or extend its Libya mission. The head of Libya's transitional government has asked NATO to keep up its operations through the end of the year, though the alliance will likely stop its air campaign by the end of this month.

There's no doubt that NATO's help was crucial to the rebellion inside Libya, but as NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro reports from Tripoli, that aid came at a cost.

LOURDES GARCIA-NAVARRO, BYLINE: On June 19th at precisely 1:10 a.m., death came to an apartment building on a quiet residential street in the Souq al-Juma neighborhood of Tripoli. Mohammed Abueishi lives near the building that was targeted by a NATO airstrike on that night.

MOHAMMED ABUEISHI: (Foreign Language Spoken).

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I was sleeping and, suddenly, there was an enormous blast and all the doors and all the windows burst open. There was a huge amount of dust in the house, he says. I stumbled out to find my uncle's house destroyed.

ABDUL RAHMAN AL-GHARARI: (Foreign Language Spoken).

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Another relative, Abdul Rahman al-Gharari, lists the names and ages of his dead family members. Among them were two children, one nine months old, the other two years old. A total of five members of his family died, he says.

NATO's mission in its intervention in Libya was to protect civilian lives, but now that Gadhafi is gone, evidence is emerging that the bombing raids killed innocent civilians, as well as Gadhafi fighters. Residents in this neighborhood supported the Libyan revolution and so, they say, they have no reason to lie about what happened here.

Souq al-Juma was well known for its opposition to Colonel Gadhafi. It was one of the first Tripoli neighborhoods to rise up against him and the people here say they view the people who died in this NATO strike as martyrs, not victims. It's been four months, and where I'm standing now on top of the ruin of the apartment building that was hit by the NATO bomb is still a pile of twisted metal and rubble. And the residents here say they want an investigation into what happened.

ABUEISHI: (Foreign Language Spoken).

GARCIA-NAVARRO: We need compensation and for NATO to take responsibility for the deaths, says Mohammed Abueishi.

Unlike other targets, NATO has admitted that it mistakenly hit this house during its operations, but it says it has not been given any proof that anyone died in this NATO strike or, in fact, at any other anywhere else in the country. And it says it won't send investigators to make sure.

COL. ROLAND LAVOIE: We don't have any confirmation of any civilian casualties as a result of our operation, so I couldn't give you a number because that number is essentially zero in term of confirmed casualties resulting from our strikes.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Colonel Roland Lavoie is the NATO spokesman for the Libyan mission. He says the Gadhafi regime often lied about civilian casualties in its propaganda war.

LAVOIE: The Gadhafi regime constantly made claims that were totally unsubstantiated and that made no sense.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Residents in Souq al-Juma gave insight into how Gadhafi's government did try and stage manage events. Almost immediately after the strike on June 19th, members of the International Press Corps escorted by their minders were brought here.

AL-GHARARI: (Foreign Language Spoken).

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Abdul Rahman al-Gharari says, Gadhafi's people told me to say NATO killed my family and, long live Moammar. And if I didn't, they said they would throw me out of my job.

Neighbors tried to move the bodies from the site, but they were told to leave them there for maximum dramatic effect. And Gadhafi supporters who had no knowledge of the strike were bussed in to give testimony to the foreign reporters.

Though only five people are known to have died, the Gadhafi government at the time put the death toll at nine.

AL-GHARARI: (Foreign Language Spoken).

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Al-Gharari says he's grateful to NATO for all it's done for Libya, but now that the regime is gone, people here want the coalition to look into what happened in Souq al-Juma. The Libya transitional government, though, is unlikely to push the issue. It has asked NATO to extend its mission and may not want to put its allies in an uncomfortable position.

Kristele Younes works with the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict. She says it's absurd for NATO to maintain that no one was harmed by its bombs.

KRISTELE YOUNES: There hasn't been any conflict in history where civilians have not been harmed.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: She says NATO needs to be held accountable.

YOUNES: We need to have NATO investigators looking into those allegations. Some of them may be false, but I am convinced some of them are true.